The fireplace seats have, well, the fireplace. And who doesn’t love a fireplace?

Having the excitement of watching the action of fire and knives, the seats of the chef’s counter has been well requested.

Our cooks will now tempt you further by offering a daily amuse bouche, exclusively for the seats at the counter. Sending an amuse to guests certainly isn’t dining revolution. But for those who want to taste what we’re experimenting with, to preview upcoming menu changes, or to discover what we found at the market that afternoon, pull up a seat, join the cooks at the counter.

Let’s first chat about our house made orgeat. Our in-house mad-scientist turned syrup-maker makes this traditional cocktail ingredient from simply almonds, sugar, and water, omitting the often-used orange flower water. While orgeat primarily functions as a sweetener, it brings such a rich viscosity, adds body and texture, and provides a depth flavor far beyond the common simple syrup.

When we were first recipe testing our almond orgeat, we had the idea…. “Why only almonds? What about…?” The next day we were experimenting with a quick batch of hazelnut orgeat, affectionately called hazel-geat. This super delicious syrup is the critical sweetener that takes our Nauti’ Mermaid from just ok, to something truly special. Since, we have experimented with peanut-geat: Thai curry cocktails much? Roasted Chestnuts-geat:happy holidays! And aWalnut-geat. The softer side of nocino

Maven is a cocktail bar. While we love the interesting and complex sweeteners, our heart is with the spirit. So when it came time for pistachio to make a cameo, we left the sugar on the shelf and got down cases of bourbon. Classic infusions pull flavor into the spirit, and often pull a little color as well, but we’ve never seen an infusion finish with a slimy green film on the surface. No, the eponymous ghost hadn’t visited the bourbon; rather, this green slim is the result of the bourbon pulling the fat from the pistachios. We opted against skimming this off as chef suggested, and just mixed it back in, and starting shaking drinks. We also did a horrible job of filtering the nuts out of the bourbon; removing only the chunks, but leaving the finer dust. This last lack of step, may have been at the perfect intersection of laziness and brilliance. Sure it makes it cloudy, but it also makes it taste great.

The new and coolest thing that nuts bring to the mix is fat. Of the five flavors, classic cocktail recipes are a play between the sweet and the sour. Yet the sensation of salt, umami, and fat are rarely felt on the palate. Furthermore, fat is the best vehicle for carrying flavor esters. By adding fat to a cocktail, not only is it tasty in and of itself, but the fat also triggers more taste buds that would otherwise remain unexcited.

Beyond this, we’ve been using a great and locally made nocino in our New Boy Valentine dessert cocktail. But admittedly have yet to make an amaretto sour.

We’re not the only ones exploring and fascinated with nuts into cocktails. Tasting Table recently ran an article regarding the gaining popularity of non-almond orgeats on cocktail menus.

]]>http://www.maven-sf.com/2012/03/12/gone-nuts/feed/0Living Wallhttp://www.maven-sf.com/2012/02/02/living-wall/
http://www.maven-sf.com/2012/02/02/living-wall/#commentsThu, 02 Feb 2012 02:04:24 +0000http://www.maven-sf.com/?p=2819The goal of Maven was to blur the lines between the kitchen and the bar, to marry as much as possible beverages to food. We think the two should forever go together. Pleasure craves company. If you’re having a drink, you should eat something. If your enjoying a meal, it’s almost a waste if you don’t have something tasty to sip on. We love both too much to do one without the other.

Blurring these lines was the genesis that spawned many ideas: our open kitchen with chef’s counter for example. Our guests are able to sit at the bar and watch the drink making magic happen, and equally so, sit at the chef’s counter and enjoy the show of fire and knives.

Continuing on this theme, our style pulls artistry from the kitchen and the bar into the other department. We don’t separate. The bar borrows many culinary techniques from the kitchen, and the kitchen marries spirits from the bar into its offerings. Our bartenders go to the market just as often as our line cooks.

But then we asked ourselves:

How do we get more market produce into the bar?

How do we get more local farms into the bar?

How do we get stuff from the garden directly into the bar?

Why don’t we put the bar in the garden?

Plants going on the wall.

And we now have a living wall of lush and thriving plants behind our bar. While growing culinary herbs mere feet above the point of use would be localist’s fairytale, the arsenal of grow lights it would take to grow thai basil would certainly be a buzz kill for our sexy ambiance.

136 plants. Busy day.

Flora Grubb designer Daniel Nonal considered the available sunlight in our space and designed a kick-ass living wall. Ground Cover Landscaping brought in irrigation, 136 plants, and put it up without a hitch. The wall smells great. It feels wonderful working under lush plants. And it’s certainly far more interesting than a flat screen TV.

Giving new meaning to term wall-flower, our wall, with bright little red flowers, just started to flower last week.

]]>http://www.maven-sf.com/2012/02/02/living-wall/feed/1Building Processhttp://www.maven-sf.com/2011/11/07/building-process/
http://www.maven-sf.com/2011/11/07/building-process/#commentsMon, 07 Nov 2011 23:50:41 +0000http://www.maven-sf.com/wp/?p=2728What does it take to build a restaurant you ask….

Here are some photos:

We got to get back to more projects.

Dave stands on the bar while we measure chef’s counter.

136 plants. Busy day.

Plants going on the wall.

Living wall in process.

Two of three communal tables in place.

]]>http://www.maven-sf.com/2011/11/07/building-process/feed/0Welcome to Maven.http://www.maven-sf.com/2011/09/20/welcome-to-maven/
http://www.maven-sf.com/2011/09/20/welcome-to-maven/#commentsTue, 20 Sep 2011 23:50:15 +0000http://www.maven-sf.com/wp/?p=2726We’re glad to be in our new home.

We’re excited to make it our own. To bring our style, our personality, and our hospitality to this space.

It’s going to take lots of work. But having you in, enjoying a drink and nibble in our space, will make it all worth while.